I’ve just heard a rumour, that Fujifilm may be releasing another new camera in the X-T series around the autumn of this year (2026) – possibly a new X-T6, to replace the existing X-T5. 

For a committed Fujifilm user like myself the release of a new model always poses a challenge. It usually starts with a determination that I am not going to spend any more money of photo-gear, which is slowly eroded over the period of a couple of months, until I eventually yield to the inevitable, and but the latest model. (I justify the expense by telling myself that I once I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, or waste money on gambling etc, so a few hundred pounds spent on a new camera is fully justified. I use this ‘logic’ every time).

When the X-T5 was launched around the end of 2022, the determination to spend no more money on camera equipment was quickly dispelled. At the time I was mainly using the X-T3 and X-T4 models, and was still shooting regular commercial work, but the X-T4 had never really gripped me in the way that the X-T3 had. It was designed by Fujifilm as a ‘hybrid’ camera, equally useful for photographers and videographers. To appeal to the video users, Fujifilm had done away with the tilt-up rear LCD screen and replaced it with a screen that folded out to the side and turned on an axis, held to the left side of the camera. The effect for me (and other stills photographers) was that I couldn’t use the device for low level shooting, without getting down on one knee, (as before when I was shooting with the older Nikon cameras) for the rotating screen, sticking out the side of the camera just got in the way. The result was that I was still using the X-T3 for most of my commercial work and the X-T4 got left in the bag.. 

The X-T5 solved that problem. It was a camera that could shot video, but was primarily for stills photographers, and had returned to the LCD screen configuration used on the X-T3, with the HS series now being more orientated towards video.  Disposing of the X-T4, and upgrading to the X-T5 was a no-brainer. And what a camera the X-T5 is! I mostly use it for sports photography, with a 100-400mm lens, and it produces sharp, crisp images, at 1/500th sec shutter speed, with reasonably fast predictive autofocus and facial tracking.  So, what would tempt me to trade in my X-T5 for a new X-T6, should one appear later this year? What’s my X-T6 wish list? Here’s a few X-T6 inducements, in my own order of importance, that would induce me to spend yet more money.

1. A vertical battery grip.  This may surprise some, and it will hardly feature at all on the wish lists of other Fuji users. To be clear, I’m not unhappy with the battery life on the X-T5, it’s fine for my purposes. But because I shoot a lot of athletics events I’m always shooting portrait format, rather than landscape. My X-T3’s have all had a battery grip, which allows me to shoot portrait with ease, with a shutter release button on the right hand side of the battery grip. The D-T5 has no facility to fit a grip with a second shutter release.  Shooting portrait, for a solid hour, with hand and arm extended right over the top of the camera leads to serious right arm fatigue!  So, a BATTERY GRIP please, Fujifilm.  That would be very helpful.
2. Faster autofocus. As I’ve said, the X-T5 was a huge improvement on its predecessors, autofocus wise, – but it still falls behind Canon and Nikon, and a tweak or two would do no harm, especially when using predictive AF with fast moving subjects. 
3. High ISO performance.  Sometimes, the X-T5 can produce noisy / grainy images at high ISO. This can be a pain shooting athletics in the darkness of winter early mornings. And perhaps autofocus efficiency even drops a little in the darkness, so an improvement there would help.  
4. Facial recognition. Again this comes near the bottom of my list, but Sony have included this feature for many years. It’s useful for wedding photographers especially, where they can capture an image of the face of the bride, then programme the camera to always look for that face. A possible selling point?
5. Ergonomics and construction.  Back in 2016 when the X-T2 was launched, I moved from Nikon to Fujifilm and it was for just  for one main reason. Fujifilm looks and feels like a real camera, not an indeterminate lump of black moonrock operated by poking at a touch screen or endlessly searching through digital menus. I learned photography in the 1980s with a Nikon FM2, and the Fujifilm X series has the same look and feel as the classic film cameras. I hope it stays that way, but the X-T50 was designed with a knob too many. We don’t need a film simulation knob. Really. Leave it out and use that knob for something useful – maybe ISO. I also wonder whether a full frame sensor would be possible, with just a slightly larger body? But that’s not critical. 

So, my main wish is a battery grip, so PLEASE Fujifilm, – if one of your planners happens to stumble across this… I love your cameras, just give me a battery grip before my right arm freezes into this weird upright overhead position. 

Having said all of that, these cameras are amazing pieces of kit, and I’ve no doubt that the XT6, when it comes will raise Fijifilm’s game even further. Fuji’s price point is slightly lower than Nikon or Canon. To succeed the X-T6 doesn’t need to be better than those two competitors, it just needs to be equal them. If it is, then the camera’s first production run will sell out in days.